{"id":8960,"date":"2014-09-17T16:23:02","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T15:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/?p=8960"},"modified":"2014-09-17T16:59:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T15:59:11","slug":"2014-07-18-adam-jumps-for-5th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/?p=8960","title":{"rendered":"2014-07-18 – Adam Jumps for 5th"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"post\"<\/a>Since the age of 14, I had wanted to skydive. The thought of falling through the clouds looked fun and exciting, I once in a lifetime experience, unless you\u2019re rich that is!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the age limit was 16 years for a Tandem Skydive, so I was going to have to wait, but when my parents asked me what I wanted for my 16th<\/sup> birthday, I knew exactly what to tell them. I also saw it as a chance to give something back to an organisation that had given me so many fun and exciting experiences, my Scout Group, 5th<\/sup> Dartford.<\/p>\n

We had been raising money for a few years to build a new hall in Dartford for future groups in Dartford, so I started collecting sponsors.<\/p>\n

The date was set for 15th<\/sup> July, after my GCSEs, and with help, I set up a fund raising page so people could donate online.<\/p>\n

On 15th<\/sup> July the day looked cloudy and after a tiring drive to Headcorn, Kent, it was confirmed we would not be jumping today. Three days later and after another sleepless night, we did the drive again.<\/p>\n

After an hour and a half briefing session and dressed in all the gear, I boarded the plane with my tandem partner, Dave.<\/p>\n

There were 2 solo parachutists and 4 of us tandem skydivers. I was the youngest; the oldest was doing it for her 50th<\/sup> birthday. As the packed light aeroplane took off I started to feel a bit nervous, but noticed my right leg kept jumping and seemed to have a life of its own.<\/p>\n

I was second to jump. I sat on the end of the plane by the door and Dave counted to three and we were off.<\/p>\n

The feeling of freefalling through the sky was amazing and nothing like I have ever experienced before. I could hear myself shouting, hear the wind whistling around my ears as the skin of my face felt like it was being pulled back and stretched. I could see the clouds below me. I felt excited and relieved that I had actually managed to jump.<\/p>\n

It felt like I was falling forever, until Dave released the parachute and I felt the pull of the harness straps cut into my groin!<\/p>\n

Dave showed me how to control the straps and do tornados, spinning ourselves round and round. I took control of the parachutes and glided across the sky.<\/p>\n

As we came into land in a nearby field, I had to make sure I put my feet up in front of me so I landed on my bottom. We were then taken back to the base. My first thought was that I wanted to do it again. Better get saving I suppose!<\/p>\n

I have a video and photos to remind me of a great experience and also managed to raise \u00a3650 for the 5th<\/sup> Dartford Scouts New Hall Fund.<\/p>\n

Adam (Johnston ESU) ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since the age of 14, I had wanted to skydive. The thought of falling through the clouds looked fun and exciting, I once in a lifetime experience, unless you\u2019re rich that is! Unfortunately the age limit was 16 years for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-explorer-blog","category-scoutnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8960"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8982,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions\/8982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}